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  • Solar Water: Heat it Up!
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  • Solar Water: Heat it Up!
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Teach Engineering Team TeachEngineering
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Most teachers had a fantastic experience with this resource
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Grade level(s)
  • High School (9-12) 254
Resource Type
  • Lesson 752
Parent Resource703
TeachEngineering
Posted March 16, 2017
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Solar Water: Heat it Up!
Solar Water: Heat it Up!
https://www.teachengineering.org/activities/view/cub_solarenergy_lesson01_activity1

PostedMonday, June 18, 2018 at 9:53 PM

Students explore energy efficiency, focusing on renewable energy, by designing and building flat-plate solar water heaters. They apply their understanding of the three forms of heat transfer (conduction, convection and radiation), as well as how they relate to energy efficiency. They calculate the efficiency of the solar water heaters during initial and final tests and compare the efficiencies to those of models currently sold on the market (requiring some additional investigation by students). After comparing efficiencies, students explain how they would further improve their devices. Students learn about the trade-offs between efficiency and cost by calculating the total cost of their devices and evaluating cost per percent efficiency and per degree change of the water.

Students explore energy efficiency, focusing on renewable energy, by designing and building flat-plate solar water heaters. They apply their understanding of the three forms of heat transfer (conduction, convection and radiation), as well as how they relate to energy efficiency. They calculate the efficiency of the solar water heaters during initial and final tests and compare the efficiencies to those of models currently sold on the market (requiring some additional investigation by students). After comparing efficiencies, students explain how they would further improve their devices. Students learn about the trade-offs between efficiency and cost by calculating the total cost of their devices and evaluating cost per percent efficiency and per degree change of the water.

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  • Jeffrey Phillips, Hanover College
    Posted Monday, June 18, 2018 at 10:07 PM
    Compressed the project to fit my schedule but still had good outcome
    I had a week-long "summer engineering camp" for high school students at our college and decided to use this project as the major task for the students. I was concerned because the recommended schedule calls for fourteen 90-minute sessions to complete the project, and we had a number of other activities in order to provide a good overview of different types of engineering. I ended up cutting out the second or "final" test and found that the students could get to the initial test after 8.5 or 9 hours. It helped to have 2 or 3 hour blocks when they could work on building their designs. The Read More
    I had a week-long "summer engineering camp" for high school students at our college and decided to use this project as the major task for the students. I was concerned because the recommended schedule calls for fourteen 90-minute sessions to complete the project, and we had a number of other activities in order to provide a good overview of different types of engineering. I ended up cutting out the second or "final" test and found that the students could get to the initial test after 8.5 or 9 hours. It helped to have 2 or 3 hour blocks when they could work on building their designs. The one drawback I found was that the constraints did not say that the designs had to be weatherproof. Consequently, 3 of the 4 teams used cardboard to make the frame of the heaters. Clearly that would not last very long in a real world application, so you may want to specify that the designs must be waterproof. The students also got bored during the 45 minute test as it is similar to watching paint dry. It would be good to have another activity for them to work on while they are waiting to take the next temperature measurement. Also be aware that prices have changed since the materials list was put together. I found that lumber products were especially more expensive, so if you really want to stay under the $75 limit, go to the store and research prices before you give out the sheet to the students. Overall this worked very well, and I would definitely do it again.
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